This application requests partial funding for the 18th consecutive Gordon Research Conference on "Chromatin and Transcription," to be held on July 7-12, 2002 at the Tilton Academy in Tilton, New Hampshire. The goal of this highly successful and long-standing meeting is to foster interactions between researchers who study DNA-templated processes with individuals who study chromatin structure and organization. These disciplines are moving together and forward at a rapid pace. Speakers are confirmed for the sessions listed below. New investigators to the field will be invited to participate. I. Structure: Nucleosomes and Higher Order Structure II. Heterochromatin and Gene Silencing III. Histone and Chromatin Modifications IV. Cell Cycle and Chromosomal Dynamics V. Transcription Factor Function and Expression VI. Epigenetic and Developmental Regulation VII. Chromatin Remodeling VIII. Long-range Chromatin Organization IX. Signaling and Disease Links The meeting's central topic, as in years past, is the relationship between chromatin and transcription. The regulation of chromatin impacts other critical biological areas: for instance, there are important links between chromatin and nuclear structure, chromosome organization, and the cell cycle, particularly relating to recent discoveries about histone modifications. Moreover, questions of epigenetics and genomic stability and instability, which are relevant to genetic disease, will be addressed in sessions on developmental/epigenetic regulation and signaling/disease links. The timing and location of the 2002 conference follows the tradition of this meeting and is ideal for productive and interactive discussions about data in these rapidly evolving areas. The implications of this general area for human biology and human disease, notably cancer, are clear and far-reaching.